Chapter Text
Midoriya stood tall in the police station as he was being relayed information from Detective Tsukauchi about the defendant before he went to officially meet him.
The detective held a relaxed posture as he half lent against the door which lead to the room that was reserved for meetings between legal representatives and individuals awaiting trial.
“He’s facing charges of grievous bodily harm, drug trafficking, incitement from his history of vigilantism and those are just the ones that we’re aware of so far.” He stated matter of factly as he handed Midoriya the rather thin file.
He couldn’t help but immediately flick through it, noting the severe lack of information they had about the alleged criminal.
Besides the already discussed charges, there was just some basic information regarding him.
Name: Hitoshi Shinsou
Additionally, his date of birth was listed, making him twenty-two this year.
There was also a brief description of his appearance, but that wasn’t too much of an interest to the lawyer.
The file was dated several years back as well, making Midoriya grimace at the thought of how young this man was when he started getting involved with these kinds of activities.
Recognising the page Midoriya was on, the detective added some clarity.
“Shinsou’s evaded capture ever since we first heard about him, this is pretty much the first time we’ve been able to apprehend him, through rather difficult measures.” The detective trailed off with a sheepish look, Midoriya didn’t feel the need to worry about it though as that wasn’t what he was being paid to do.
He resumed to looking at the file where he noticed that the quirk section was also left blank, which made Midoriya understand why he had been picked specifically by his law firm to handle this specific client.
“Client? That’s quite a respectable term for someone wearing cuffs.” The detective noted with an amused smile, making Midoriya realise he had been thinking out loud.
“Ah! Well—” he took the time to clear his throat before continuing, “I like to assume that whoever I’m defending is innocent until proven otherwise, so I think the least they deserve is a bit of respect.” He said, puffing his chest out slightly to appear proud.
Tsukauchi let out a chuckle at the younger man’s reasoning, it was in no way to mock him however.
“That’s very honourable, Midoriya. I wish we had more people like you on the team.” The detective said with a small hint, causing the latter to flush red.
“Detective work is too commendable for someone like me to take on.” He replied dismissively, as if there was no point in giving it a second thought.
The detective simply shook his head at the boys supposed humbleness.
“I’ve seen your file too you know, the cases you’ve tackled are nothing to sneeze at. And it looked like they came with a lot of background research to boot.” He praised, causing Midoriya to go even more red as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“I guess I am pretty thorough.” He eventually conceded though he winced slightly when it came out sounding self-deprecating.
“How do you make a strength sound like a weakness?” Tsukauchi said with a hint of fond exasperation as he looked at the younger man with a curious smile, causing Midoriya to shrug in response.
He decided to leave the lawyer be for now, and made a note to seriously consider recruiting him if his case with Shinsou went well. Heck, even if it didn’t—he knew watching this specific trial would be one for the books.
“Well, let’s not keep your client waiting any longer then.” Tsukauchi said with a subtle wink before promptly opening the door and leading the younger man inside.
Midoriya was greeted to a rather bright room, which took some blinking to adjust to. He wasn’t unfamiliar with these counselling rooms and much preferred them over the interrogation rooms that he would sometimes have to attend when accumulating data over his defendants.
But still, they could’ve at least decorated the place a bit.
It was completely barren save for a table in the middle, two chairs, and who Midoriya assumed to be Shinsou, was sat with his legs sprawled out under the table and his head down in his folded arms.
“Shinsou,” the detective spoke with a sense of authority as he regarded the purple-haired man.
When there was no response, Midoriya started to grow awkward.
“Is he…asleep?” He asked in confusion as the two watched the man’s chest rise up and down in slow concessions.
Midoriya soon noticed the detective pinch the bridge of his nose with his fingers, trying not to find the situation anti-climatic.
This was supposed to be a vigilante wanted for all sorts of serious crimes, yet here he was sleeping without a care in the world.
“Stay with him until he wakes up, if he doesn’t move after ten minutes, come find me.” Tsukauchi instructed with a tired sigh before leaving Midoriya to it.
Well then.
Midoriya made an effort in being quiet as he walked over to the table that Shinsou was resting on and took the seat opposite him.
Whilst he waited, he could at least review his notes that he made in the office.
“You look a little young to be a lawyer.”
“Ohmygosh!” Midoriya startled in his seat when a voice spoke to him all of a sudden.
He looked up from his notes in alarm, seeing purple eyes staring back in boredom.
Shinsou looked the frazzled man up and down for a second before moving to stretch. As he did, Midoriya could hear chains rattling and upon further inspection he identified the source.
There were two cuffs restraining Shinsou to the bolted table, one around his ankle and the other looped round his wrists. The guy didn’t seem too fazed by them though as he was still able to get his stretches in, cracking his back loudly in the process.
“God, I thought he was never going to leave.” He muttered in annoyance as he went back to slumping down in his chair, as he lazily examined Midoriya.
“Wait you were just pretending to sleep?” Midoriya inquired with a raised brow.
“Eh, define pretending.” The man shot back with a wry smirk before continuing to say, “when you have insomnia it kinda feels like you’re always pretending to sleep.”
Midoriya nodded slowly before writing that down, causing Shinsou to furrow his brows in confusion.
“I thought you were a lawyer, not a doctor.” He said with a sense of suspicion.
Midoriya’s ears dusted pink as he quickly set aside his notebook for now.
“Oh! Sorry, that probably seemed invasive of me. It’s just helpful to understand the in’s and out’s of my clients so I can better help with their cases.” Midoriya explained, when Shinsou still looked confused, he continued.
“So your insomnia for instance—it’s a sleep disorder at best, mental health condition at worst. We could use it in your case to argue for mitigating factors against your charges.” The man explained.
Shinsou let out a low whistle at that.
“Yep, trust a lawyer to use ‘not getting their eight hours of sleep’ as an excuse to get away with…hey what charges do you guys have me down for anyways?” He asked curiously, leaning forward as he did so to try and take a peak at the file rested under Midoriya’s arms.
If he didn’t know any better, he was sure Shinsou would’ve just taken the file right from him if he wasn’t cuffed.
The green-haired man let out a small cough as he opened the file up to Shinsou’s list of charges.
“Oh, that’s it?” Shinsou let out with an amused scoff.
“Is that you admitting that you’ve done more things that aren’t listed here?” Midoriya quickly fired back.
Shinsou looked up from the file to shoot him a frown.
“Hey, I thought you were supposed to be on my side here.”
Midoriya shot him an amused brow in return.
“I am on your side—look we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, we haven’t even been properly introduced yet.”
Midoriya extended a hand out.
“My name is Midoriya Izuku, I will be your criminal defence lawyer and overseeing your case for the duration of your trial.”
Shinsou eyed his hand with caution.
“What’s the point of me introducing myself? Everything you need to know about me is in that file.” He argued as he made a pointed look towards it as it laid limply on the table.
Midoriya scratched the side of his head sheepishly, causing Shinsou’s gaze to shift to the action.
It was always best to gain a good level of trust with clients. Perhaps breaking the ice with a small joke might ease Shinsou more into it, the more cooperative he was, the better.
“It doesn’t tell me your favourite colour?” Midoriya replied with a lame smile.
That earned a snort from the vigilante, so hey! At least his attempt at a joke didn’t fall flat.
Eventually, the detainee raised a hand out to shake Midoriya’s, to which he returned earnestly.
“And about my trial,” Shinsou said with a creeping smirk, “I’m afraid I might not be able to make it.”
Midoriya was too confused to notice the firm grip Shinsou had his hand in as they kept shaking.
“What? You got somewhere else to be?” Midoriya asked with a half-amused, half-weary smile.
Shinsou let out a toothy grin in reply before quickly yanking the lawyer towards him, causing Midoriya to flail downwards in surprise.
With his hand still ensnared in Shinsou’s vice grip, his other one quickly latched onto the side of the table to prevent him from banging his head down onto it.
“Thanks for all your help Mr lawyer but I think I’ll be able to handle things from here.” Shinsou muttered as he leant down towards the left side of Midoriya’s head, causing the guy to yelp, not realising how close Shinsou had gotten to him.
It wasn’t until he felt something leave his hair did his hand get released from the man’s clutches, allowing Midoriya the ability to finally sit back up.
His eyes immediately narrowed in on a bobby pin that was currently caught between the purple-haired guys teeth.
Shinsou wasted no time in using it to undo his handcuffs, promptly unlocking the one on his ankle soon after.
“Do you want this back?” Shinsou said with a cocky smile as he extended Midoriya’s stolen bobby pin out to him.
The guy must’ve noticed it when Midoriya had reached up to scratch at the side of his hair,
Curse his freakishly unruly curls!
“Shinsou I—” Suddenly, a weird humming sensation pinged in the back of Midoriya’s head causing him to furrow his brows in confusion.
That was nothing compared to the dumbfounded expression on Shinsou’s face though.
“I would really advise you sit back down before Detective Tsukauchi comes.” Midoriya warned warily, standing up as well as he held his arms up in a placating manner.
Shinsou continued to look at the lawyer in shock. Perhaps it was just a fluke?
“What’s your favourite colour?” He asked abruptly, as if testing something out.
“Huh!?” Another weird vibration hummed in his mind, causing Midoriya to press his hand to the back of his head.
“There’s no way.” Shinsou blurted out.
“…I didn’t even get to say what it was!” Midoriya exclaimed, looking very lost. Seriously, this weird humming feeling was really spiking his anxiety levels.
“Right…” Shinsou quickly conceded before shrugging, adapting to the change in plan, “well guess I gotta do this the old fashioned way.” He remarked ominously as he then began to take long strides towards an incredibly confused Midoriya.
“Hey!” He yelled out when Shinsou quickly towered over him, using his height advantage against Midoriya to force him to the ground.
He did the best he could to struggle out of the hold but it was no use, the insomniac used his annoyingly long legs to pin down Midoriya’s as his hand held the man’s arms bent behind his back, completely immobilising him.
With his free hand, Shinsou grabbed onto the back of Midoriya’s hair to raise his head up.
He could tell where this was about to go. His face, meeting the ground, hard.
“This isn’t going to be nice to wake up from, sorry in advance.” Shinsou said gruffly as he was seconds away from knocking Midoriya unconscious.
Before the guy could go through with the action however, a barrel of policemen stormed through the door and immediately apprehended Shinsou, dragging him off Midoriya and slipping cuffs on him.
“Figures.” Shinsou grumbled as he was being tussled out the room.
Detective Tsukauchi raced over to Midoriya, scanning him for any injuries as he rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Midoriya, are you alright?” The detective asked calmly, to which Midoriya nodded with a quick, if a bit shaky, nod.
The humming sensation had vanished too which was relieving.
“It’s purple by the way,” Shinsou called out, causing Midoriya to snap his bewildered eyes back to him, “if you couldn’t already tell. Same time next week?”
He wasn’t able to wait around for a response as the police wasted no time in finally getting him out the door and into, what Midoriya assumed to be, his holding cell.
“..what was that all about?” The detective asked as he helped Midoriya to his feet. His legs were wobbly but he still managed to stand on his own.
“I asked him what his favourite colour was…purple, huh? I didn’t take him to be the self-conceited type.” Midoriya murmured with a distant expression on his face.
“No, I meant how did he get out of the cuffs, Midoriya.” Tsukauchi pulled him out from his thoughts in a slightly distressed tone.
“Oh! Right, right.”
Finally on the same page, Midoriya and the Detective walked out the room together as the younger man explained exactly what went down, he grimaced when he saw the older man actually face palm at the news of their new detainee being able to break out of quirk suppressing cuffs with a simple hair pin.
—————————
The next time Midoriya met Shinsou, a plastic see-through window was separating them. Shinsou also wore twice as many cuffs, with two restraining each hand and foot to the table.
The room looked much more secure too, with a prison guard keeping watch outside.
“Looks like they got you on high alert.” Midoriya said light heartedly as he sat down to face Shinsou.
“Looks like they couldn’t keep you away.” Shinsou retorted back with an amused expression.
Midoriya rolled his eyes at the teasing and quickly went to flipping through his work.
“I don’t give up on my clients that easily, people do say I can be a bit stubborn.” Midoriya admitted with a sheepish look as he recalled back to last weekend when he told Kacchan what had went down.
It took a whole lot of convincing for the number two hero not to storm down to the police station and deal with Shinsou himself.
It took even more persuading to reassure his childhood friend that he would be able to handle it on his own.
“You’re the most stubborn brat I know, you know that right? And I have to work with fucking icyhot and round face, the two musketeers of pure heroism.”
Bakugou had said with a look of pure disgust, as if he wasn’t a hero himself.
Midoriya waved off the memory with a shake of his head, realising he had important things to discuss with his client.
“Last time we met, I don’t think we got off on the right foot..” Midoriya said in the nicest way possible.
In that moment, Shinsou would’ve probably crossed his arms if he wasn’t restrained by his cuffs.
“Yeah no shit, I tackled you to the ground and nearly knocked you out.” He reminded the other man, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut and let out an awkward chuckle at the memory.
“Yep! Minor details, not to worry though, we can start over!” Midoriya said positively as he flipped through Shinsou’s file again, ignoring the guy’s incredulous expression.
They began going through Shinsou’s list of alleged crimes.
“The charges of assault?”
“Self-defence.”
“A witness reported that you had punched one of your victims so hard their teeth flew out…”
“Like I said, self-defence. Those teeth were cavity ridden anyways I was giving him free dental work.”
Midoriya swiftly moved on.
“Drug trafficking?”
“I was undercover. Had to play into the role in order to shut them down from the inside.” Shinsou remarked as if it were obvious.
“Right.” Midoriya mumbled as he took notes.
The session mostly went on like that, with every charge against him, there was a convenient excuse. but he was surprised to see the man never denied any of the charges.
That means Midoriya was going to have to put his defending skills into overdrive and really push for a good narrative.
He wondered about the man’s quirk.
“When we met…and you got the quirk suppressing cuffs off, why didn’t you use your quirk to escape?” Midoriya asked inquisitively.
Shinsou shook his head exasperatedly as he regarded Midoriya with a ‘this guy can’t be real’ expression.
“I did try asshat, but thanks for rubbing it in.” He bit out with an annoyed tone, causing Midoriya to splutter, he never meant to upset his client!
“So how’d you do it? Have they invented some kind of quirk resistant tech gear that you’re wearing? Was the whole room bugged with quirk suppressing items? Or did you fuckers drug me—”
“Wait!” Midoriya called out in alarm as he felt Shinsou getting more pissed off as he speculated.
“I think there’s been some misunderstanding!”
Midoriya’s panic did at least cause Shinsou to pull back a bit, looking at Midoriya with a skeptic yet curious expression.
“..So what, does your quirk block brainwashing?” The vigilante eventually asked, supposedly assuming that Midoriya already knew his quirk and was able to combat it before the guy had the chance to activate it.
But this confirmed that Shinsou in fact was attempting to use his quirk on him that day, which meant…
“So that’s what that weird humming sensation was.” Midoriya said as he finally connected the dots together.
Shinsou raised a brow.
“What the hell are you on about now?” He asked, looking tired all of a sudden as he stared at the green-haired man.
Midoriya gave him a relaxed expression, feeling refreshed now that he had the answer he was looking for. He decided to be nice and not leave Shinsou in the dark about it.
“I guess further introductions are due here.” The freckled man said as he sat up a little straighter.
“Midoriya Izuku,” he felt the need to hold up a hand as he referred to himself, “favourite colour red, and I am quirkless.” He said calmly, though his leg bounced slightly from admitting his quirk status. Even years of therapy wasn’t enough to drive out all of his anxiety of quirk discrimination after all.
“Oh! Fun fact also, we’re actually the same age. Same birth month too, which is a happy coincidence.” Midoriya said with a chuckle.
He tried not to dwell on the depressing fact that they were both twenty two yet one of them was already behind bars.
“Fuck..” Shinsou said bluntly as he relayed the information in his head.
“What? Not happy with my colour choice?” Midoriya tried to joke, hoping Shinsou didn’t immediately kick him out the room for being quirkless.
“Red is fine…I guess.” His eyes narrowed slightly as he seemed to genuinely weigh the colour in question before quickly shaking his head.
“More importantly how the fuck am I supposed to brainwash you now when you don’t have a quirk factor?” Shinsou said rather boldly.
“Oh, so you’re not upset that you’ve got a quirkless guy as your lawyer?” Midoriya inquired with a bit of hopefulness.
“If anything it just makes this all the more challenging.”
“Defending you in court?”
“No Sherlock, getting the fuck outta here.” Shinsou said with an exasperated look on his face, causing Midoriya to gasp.
“You can’t seriously still be planning on escaping again.” Midoriya almost whined.
“Oh don’t act so surprised Mr ‘law-abiding-citizen’, I’m sure you’re a great lawyer and all but I trust myself more to get out of here scot-free rather than with the help of your morally good code of ethics bs.” Shinsou remarked with an eye roll.
There was a stagnant pause between the pair, before Midoriya asked,
“You really don’t trust me to get you out of here?” Practically looking like a kicked puppy.
Now it was Shinsou’s turn to look aghast as he regarded Midoriya with unbelieving eyes.
“That’s the part that you’re hung up about? Not that I just admitted to trying to brainwash you the other day!? And probably still would if given the chance??”
Midoriya paused for a second, considering the question seriously, before nodding.
“I think your quirk is great, Shinsou. And I’m sure you use it when the opportunity arises.”
A determined look washed over Midoriya’s face.
“But we won’t need it to win your case! So help me All Might I will bend and twist the code of ethics handbook myself if it means getting you acquitted of all charges!” He declared, causing the purple-haired guy to look taken aback.
“Damn, and I’ve been told love confessions with less passion than that.”
Ignoring that, Midoriya quickly went back to work in creating plans for Shinsou’s upcoming trial, scribbling down notes at an alarming pace.
“I know it’s not easy putting your life in the hands of a complete stranger, but you have my word that you will get out of here as a free man.” He said, looking back up to meet Shinsou’s bewildered gaze with a determined grin before letting out more of a wry smile.
“And besides, what’s the good in escaping now only to then have to spend the rest of your life in hiding?”
Coming back to himself, Shinsou let out an amused huff, “I’ve been doing it for this long, another thirty years couldn’t hurt.” He retorted, though his smile appeared insincere.
“Yeah, but if you leave now you’re gonna miss out on all the other exciting icebreakers I’ve got lined up.”
“I don’t know Midoriya, I don’t think anything’s gonna top ‘favourite colour.’” The vigilante drawled out sarcastically, though his demeanour did relax slightly—seemingly more open to talking.
Sensing this change in attitude, Midoriya sat with a pensive look on his face, as if he was genuinely giving the topic some thought.
“I raise you with, ‘favourite animal?’”
“You first.” Shinsou said as if they were sharing top secret information right now, which they probably should’ve been, Midoriya was so far getting paid to discuss icebreakers.
“I’d have to say cats, I’m pretty biased though since I have a pet of my own. I’m very attached to her it seems.” Midoriya admitted with a giggle as he pulled his phone out and pressed it against the window to show the man.
Shinsou gave it his undivided attention as he gaped fondly at the little fluffball on the green-haired man’s screen.
“Okay, you’ve sold me. I think we can make this work.” Shinsou finally conceded, causing Midoriya to cheer internally.
“And there’s plenty more where that came from,” Midoriya joked as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, “for now, let’s get some more questions answered and I’ll show you a video of Midnight playing with her new climbing tower.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal, freckles.”
Midoriya spluttered at the nickname, exclaiming that Shinsou had a lot of nerve to say that with his prominent eye bags staring right back at him, causing the taller man to laugh at his reaction, before they soon went back to their little q&a.